Africa: Campaigners seek blanket debt cancellation

African civil society organisations have stepped up a new push for debt cancellation of the 39 billion US dollars paid by African states to lenders annually ahead of crucial World Bank, International Monetary Fund meeting set for April 16-17. "We have been strategising for popular action and public mobilization to put pressure on the World Bank and IMF to reform the policy agenda and cancel debts owed by African nations and improve the quality and quantity of aid," Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of the Johannesburg-based CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation) told Xinhua in an interview. "African nations are also spending an average of 40 percent of their annual budgets on servicing debts which were given ages back but which the various nations still have to re-pay as part of national obligations," Naidoo said.